Thomson

It’s a heck of a way to run a pre-election campaign. On the eve of an expected election, politicians usually spend their time playing up good news, downplaying the bad, shaking hands and kissing babies.

Vast stretch of Highway 63 to be twinned in four years, cabinet minister promises

The first convoy drives down the newly twinned section of Highway 63 on Friday north of Wandering River. The 36 kilometer stretch is expected to open to traffic on Monday.

Photograph by: Sarah O'Donnell
, Edmonton Journal

WANDERING RIVER — Alberta’s transportation minister promised Friday the province will twin a 240-kilometre stretch of Highway 63 by the fall of 2016, saying the government will borrow at least some of the estimated $778 million to fast-track the project.

Transportation Minister Ric McIver made the commitment standing on a newly twinned 36-km segment of Highway 63 north of Wandering River that will open to traffic on Monday, weather permitting. The announcement marks the first time the province has detailed an expedited time frame to twin Highway 63, widely regarded as one of Alberta’s most dangerous, but vital transportation routes, connecting Edmonton to Fort McMurray and the oilsands mega-projects around it.

“We’re just keeping a promise,” McIver said of the four-year plan to twin Highway 63 between Fort McMurray and Highway 55 near Grassland. “The premier made it clear during the election we would do this.”

The province originally announced its plans to twin the 240-km length between Fort McMurray and Highway 55 in 2006. At the time, provincial officials said the work would take about 10 years to complete.

Until now, however, just 17 kilometres north of Fort McMurray and 16 kilometres south of had been finished, in addition to the 36 kilometres that will open next week. Other planning and clearing has been in the works, but the slow pace of construction has been a source of frustration for communities along the highway and for commuters who work in the region. There have been at least 149 fatalities on Highway 63 since 1990, most stemming from head-on accidents.

It became a major issue leading up to Alberta’s April 23 election.

Then, just days later, seven people died on the highway in a fiery head-on crash. That collision renewed calls for the twinning work to speed up.

Less than a week later, Premier Alison Redford appointed PC MLA Mike Allen as a special adviser on Highway 63. The Fort McMurray-Wood Buffalo MLA issued a report in June that included 22 recommendations, including proposals to speed up twinning work and make the road safer, but until Friday no firm timeline had been established for that work.

At the province’s previous pace of spending on Highway 63, about $50 million a year, it would have taken another 11 years to complete the 240-km project, officials said.

But McIver said Friday the province will borrow some of the money, issuing bonds or tapping into capital markets by some other means, to help pay for the Highway 63 twinning and another $308 million for needed improvements to Highway 881.

The province will repay the money within 20 years, McIver said.

“It makes good financial sense to do this now,” he said. “Alberta has an AAA credit rating. Interest rates are low and there is industry capacity to complete the work at an accelerated pace. In fact, I’m told the inflation cost of waiting until we have cash in the bank is higher than the interest we’ll pay on any borrowed funds.”

The government’s Treasury Board will decide how much to borrow, McIver said, and those details should be announced soon. “It won’t be long,” he said. “I’ll tell you why because we have to have the money in place to let contracts and the contracts have to be let sometime in mid-November to meet the schedule we announced today.”

All of Alberta’s political parties agreed during the election that improving Highway 63 should be a high priority.

On Friday, Wildrose MLA Ron Anderson called it a “very good decision” to twin Highway 63 as quickly as possible.

“It’s a very bad decision to do it with debt. It’s very unnecessary,” the Airdrie MLA said. “They just need to earmark the funds and pay as they go.”

The province could pay for the project without going into debt by eliminating plans to spend $2 billion on carbon capture and storage.

Three busloads of people from Fort McMurray, Edmonton and communities along Highway 63 got a taste of what the twinned highway will look like Friday, touring a portion of the new 36-km, $84-million segment three days in advance of its anticipated opening.

That construction is done nine months ahead of the spring 2013 schedule, transportation officials said, praising the work of the construction company Ledcor and its contractors.

Standing on the new highway, people who live in Fort McMurray welcomed the news.

“The fact that we’re opening this 36-km stretch nine months ahead of schedule and it’s before winter is absolutely going to save lives,” said Russell Thomas, a Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo councillor.

Fort McMurray blogger Theresa Wells said she was pleased to hear a four-year commitment to finish the total 240-km portion of highway.

“A timeline brings accountability and that’s the issue that’s been present all along is accountability,” Wells said.

Ashley St. Croix and Nicole Auser, the pair who organized a May rally in Fort McMurray that drew more than 1,000 people demanding the province speed up plans to twin Highway 63, stood together Friday on the newly twinned road that boasts extra-wide shoulders and an extra-wide median between lanes.

“I really didn’t think we had any possibility of a timeline,” St. Croix said. “I’m quite excited about. It’s a big achievement for us.”

McIver said Friday he could not foresee a circumstance that would delay the four-year plan.

“I’m not anticipating anything pushing the timeline of this project back. Our intention and our work will be to have this project done on time,” he said.

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